Are you worried about what’s happening to America, to the foundations of our republic, to the underpinnings of our democracy?

If you’re not, you should be, argues TV journalist and former judge Catherine Crier. And it matters not if you’re a member of the Tea Party or an advocate of the Occupy movement. Crier says there’s enough rhetoric, ideology, and blatant misinformation going around, it’s hard to stay focused anymore on what’s really at stake.

And what’s really at stake, she says, is the very bedrock of America.

In her new book“Patriot Acts” Crier hopes to help us remember exactly what it is we’re fighting for. And it doesn’t belong to one party, movement, or philosophy exclusively.

Listen to Catherine Crier

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Al Checchi is a change maker. As he tells in a new memoir, Checchi helped shepherd three major American companies — Marriott, Disney, and Northwest Airlines — through major transitions. Then he tried his hand at something where real change could do some real good: he ran for Governor of California.

And he learned some humbling, and eye-opening, lessons about American leadership. Or the lack thereof.

Checchi knows that one person can make a difference, can effect real and meaningful change. His book is called “The Change Maker.”

Listen to Al Checchi

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Christine O’Donnnell‘s bid for U.S. Senate in Delaware was the-most-covered campaign of 2010. After her upset primary election victory over veteran Congressman Mike Castle, and with the backing of the emerging Tea Party, O’Donnell felt energized and optimistic.

But she soon realized the Republican Party was going to do little, if anything, to help her win the November general election. She says she was fighting “the establishment.” Then came that years-old Bil Maher clip in which she admitted she had “dabbled into witchcraft” as a teenager, and the ill-advised TV commercial in which O’Donnell assured us she is not a witch.In her new book “Troublemaker” O’Donnell takes responsibility for that really bad ad — but is also frankly critical of the way she was treated. The book, she says, is meant to energize like-minded folk.

Listen to Christine ODonnell

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According to Wikipedia, “in some Christian doctrines, righteous indignation is considered the only form of anger which is not sinful.” Web publisher and commentator Andrew Breitbart says liberal bias in the media is what makes him angry in that way, which is why he calls his new book “Righteous Indignation” — subtitled “Excuse Me While I Save the World!”

Breitbart — who once worked with Matt Drudge, and helped create The Huffington Post — says he’s acting in defense of media outlets and bloggers who dare to speak with a conservative voice. In fact he says there is a “totalitarian streak” on the left that is trying to silence those voices.

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Everyone loves an underog. Ever since David slew Goliath, we have rooted for the little guy who takes on the stronger, more powerful, or more dominant opponent. But sometime, a generation or two ago, Americans’ attitude about the underdog underwent a strange metamorphosis, says political consultant and human rights activist Michael Prell. We began to see any underdog as inherently good, because they have no power, and any side with power — the United States, for example — as inherently evil, just because they have the power.

In his book “Underdogna,” Prell demonstrates how that mutated definition of the power balance now threatens the bedrock of American philosophy, the notion that we are an exceptional nation. Our enemies, he says, are all too happy to help propagate the new “underdogma” that focuses world rage on America.

Listen to Michael Prell

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